If you're not familiar with the Tower of Babel, it's a story from very early on in the Bible that chronicles some of the first humans attempting to build a tower high enough that it could reach God.
"Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves," they explain.
It's not bad logic for such primitive humans. If we build something high enough, they reason, they can get up to God's level. They can be like God, and they can make a name for themselves, which is another way of saying they'll have power, presumably over the other humans and possibly even God.
That's been our goal since the beginning of humanity: to be like God. That's what causes the initial downfall, the linchpin that allows Satan to trick Eve into eating the fruit.
So what does God do when He sees these people trying to build a tower to reach Him? Probably chuckles a little first, I'd assume, and then makes them all speak different languages, so that they cannot understand one another and end up fighting, destroying their plans to build this tower.
So why do I think the internet is our 21st century Tower of Babel?
The internet is knowledge. With knowledge comes power and the ability to make a name for oneself.
Instead of trying to physically reach up to God, we're trying to have all knowledge. Nothing is ever a mystery anymore, because we can just Google it (or ask Alexa to do that for us) and we trick ourselves into thinking that we're all-knowing.
And what is God doing in response to our futile attempts? He's confusing our language.
This language may not be confused physically (we have Google translate for that now), but "fake news," cyberbullying and hatred, and even Photoshopped Instagram photos and only the best of everyone's life have changed our language. In our search to grow knowledge, we now don't know what to believe.
This is one of those blog posts where I don't necessarily have an answer (or even a question really). I think the internet can be used for amazing things for God and for our lives as humans, and I don't think that eliminating it is the right call (nor is it practical at this stage).
But I guess my takeaway is to think about how you're using the internet. Are you able to rest in the mysteries of this life that even the internet can't explain, or does that lack of understanding drive you mad? Are you looking for the Truth online or something that's easy to believe? Most importantly, are you using the internet to make a name for yourself or God?